An Education and Communication Outpost from an Athletic Trainer's Perspective

Dave Duerson

With the tragic news of the death, at his own hands, of Junior Seau along with the peculiarly similar initial circumstances of Dave Duerson everyone needs to step back. Yes, the very first thought that crossed my mind was Dave Duerson upon hearing the reports, mainly by Twitter. However, what we must collectively do now is allow the process to unfold.

Not unlike sustaining a concussion the news is just the beginning. When someone sustains a concussion often there are instant leaps to conclusions about time missed, long-term effects, and safety. With a concussion it is a process, after time is allowed to properly asses the situation, create a plan and implement it there is nothing more to note other than it is a concussion.

And just like concussions people act in different ways, there is no rhyme or reason for many of these tragic situations, often it is because one has not had the proper education and levity of the situation.

I would just like to caution EVERYONE, let the process begin without jumping to conclusions. In due time we will find out all the necessary information. I for one hope against all hope that this has nothing to do with his brain health.

The former Michigan star and coach for Notre Dame has been hospitalized due to a self-inflicted wound after a stand-off in his Indiana home. Fox News has the report;

A statement released by Brown’s family said he became suspicious, distant, gloomy, exhausted and depressed after playing eight seasons in the NFL.

“We believe Corwin is suffering from symptoms similar to those experienced by the late Dave Duerson and were caused by the many notable collisions during Corwin’s career in the NFL,” the family said. “For those reasons, Corwin chose to not disclose his symptoms, as he did not want to bring shame to any coach, team, organization or the NFL. Continue reading →

UPDATE: Thanks to commenter @SpMedConcepts I should write that one test is just a piece to the puzzle. And a comprehensive testing procedure that includes all of the available “baselines” and assessments should be used. It becomes more difficult to cloud the picture with deception when using this approach.

Knowing about concussions is one thing, but knowing that players may take advantage of the system is another factor. Like anything else in this world people will look to exploit weaknesses in systems to gain an advantage. After all isn’t that the crux of competition and sports? We have seen Irv Muchnick open up the dialogue on Ritalin as a possible way to “cheat the system” and now Alex Marvez of Fox Sports tells us the other, more obvious way to “cheat the system”;

Dr. Daniel Amen, who has treated current and former players for post-concussion symptoms, said some of his clients have confessed to fudging the initial baseline tests administered by NFL teams. By doing so, Amen said those players are seeking quicker clearance to return from any future head injuries they might suffer.

If the baseline tests are to be used to compare then why try hard and excel at them, only to have that first test hinder their return? This is the common question that the professional and adolescent athletes are dealing with. Even though baseline tests, be it neurocognitive computer based or hand written like the SCAT2 or the new NFL test, are objective Continue reading →

ABC has run a very extensive story about head injuries in sport (see football) in light of the Duerson suicide. The article is good but what is striking are the videos associated with it. Not only the embedded video on the first page, but the sourced videos below it, mainly about Mike Webster (Driven Mad?).

Neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, MD, who was the first to identify the condition, told MedPage Today, “There is no reason, no medical justification, for any child younger than 18 to play football, period.”

“People said then, and still are saying today, that when former athletes deteriorate into depression, drug abuse, and even violence and criminality, it’s because they don’t compete well on the field of life after competing well on the field of football,” Omalu said in an interview with MedPage Today. Continue reading →

In an article written by Irv Muchnick we the reader get another perspective on the concussion issue, as highlighted by the suicide of Dave Duerson.

The gruesome decades-long underground American saga that is the football concussion crisis has never gotten in our faces quite like the story of the suicide last week, at age 50, of one-time National Football League defensive player of the year Dave Duerson.

How many levels are there to the news that Duerson put a gun to himself, but not before texting family that he wanted his brain donated for research on the brain-trauma syndrome now known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)? Let us, like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, count them. It begins with the fact that he shot himself in the chest – perhaps with supreme confidence that by avoiding his head and leaving intact his postmortem brain tissue, it will confirm that he is around the 21st diagnosed case of CTE among former football players.

Duerson is the latest casualty of a sport that has evolved, via training technology and industrial design, into a form of gladiatorialism whose future human and economic viability is questionable. The New Yorker and New York Times have started assessing this cultural phenomenon with their own brands of competence and Ivy League restraint. From the closeted gutter of pro wrestling, where all the same venalities play out with less pretense, I’m here to tell “the rest of the story” – such as how the same corrupt doctors who work for the NFL also shill for World Wrestling Entertainment, and how it’s all part of the same stock exchange of ethics for profits and jock-sniffing privileges.

Of note in the Duerson follow-up has been the fact that he shot himself in the chest, and it is being reported that he mentioned to his family that he did that for the explicit reason of not harming his brain.

Dave Duerson was found dead in his Miami home on Thursday, and initially there was no reason given for his death. Duerson was recently quoted in a newspaper article commenting on his fellow defensive teammate Richard Dent and his enshrinement into the NFL Hall of Fame.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting former Bears safety Dave Duerson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, and the co-director of a medical school program tells The Associated Press his family has agreed to donate his brain for research.

Chris Nowinski of the Sports Legacy Institute has confirmed that Duerson’s brain has been donated for research.

The initial report of his death can be found here. What is shocking to most is that he had been in contact with former teammates very recently;

“When we spoke recently, he sounded great,” former Bears defensive back Shaun Gayle said. “It’s a real shock to all of the guys.”

Duerson is most known for his hard-hitting style in the defensive backfield, most notably with the Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears of 1985.

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